Linux on the HP Compaq nc2400
First posted 2007-04-25 00:00:00.000002+00:00
Over Christmas I obtained an HP Compaq nc2400 laptop. It is a nice, compact device with a 12.1" screen, dual 1.2GHz processors and 1GB of ram.
It came with Windows XP Professional installed. This was quickly replaced with kubuntu edgy. Here is a brief outline of how well things work.
Graphics - WORKS
To get the correct screen resolution (1280x800) install the package 915resolution from universe.
Multimedia - WORKS
In order to support many of the video formats online it is necessary to install a number of extra packages. Add the following lines to your sources.list:
deb http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all
deb-src http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl edgy-seveas all
And to avoid messages about unsigned packages you may wish to run:
wget http://mirror.ubuntulinux.nl/1135D466.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
You can now install the following packages (some from the repository above, some from multiverse).
libxine-extracodecs w32codecs libdvdread3 libdvdcss2
Fingerprint reader - NO SUPPORT
The fingerprint reader uses the AuthenTec AES2501 chip. There is some very beta software available you can find using Google - I haven't tried it. Allegedly the manufacturer should be releasing linux drivers some time this year
Wireless - WORKS
Wireless Assistant in edgy does not support DHCP. Either upgrade to the version in edgy-updates or (preferably) switch to KNetworkManager.
Suspend and Hibernate - WORKS
Edit /etc/defaults/apci-support adding psmouse and i8042 as modules to be reloaded. Add powernowd to the list of services to be restarted.
You will need to rebuild the kernel, see https://wiki.kubuntu.org/KernelCustomBuild. I suggest you install the following packages to do this:
linux-kernel-devel fakeroot kernel-wedge kernel-package linux-source
Edit the configuration file for your architecture so that X86_GENERIC=y, X86_PC is unset, and I8042=m. Then build a new kernel image and install it. You may also need to build and install the linux-restricted-modules package.
And that's all there is to it.